Jerusalem sits at the cross­roads of three con­ti­nents, con­tin­u­ous­ly invad­ed for mil­len­nia. Yet, in the mid­dle of one of the region’s most vio­lent eras, the Cru­sades, an amaz­ing mul­ti­cul­tur­al world was form­ing. Tem­plar knights, Mus­lim peas­ants, Turk­ish caliphs, Jew­ish mer­chants, and the native Chris­tians, along with the chil­dren of the first cru­saders, blend­ed cul­tures while strug­gling to sur­vive in a land con­stant­ly at war. Defend­ing the City of God explores this fas­ci­nat­ing and for­got­ten world, and how a group of sis­ters, daugh­ters of the King of Jerusalem, whose sup­port­ers includ­ed Grand Mas­ters of the Tem­plars and Armen­ian cler­ics, held togeth­er the frag­ile treaties, under­stand­ings, and mar­riages that allowed for rel­a­tive peace among the many dif­fer­ent fac­tions. As the cru­saders fought to main­tain their con­quests, these rela­tion­ships quick­ly unrav­eled, and the reli­gious and cul­tur­al diver­si­ty was lost as hard­line fac­tions took over. Weav­ing togeth­er the polit­i­cal intrigues and dynas­tic bat­tles that trans­formed the Near East with an evoca­tive por­trait of medieval Jerusalem, this is an aston­ish­ing look at a for­got­ten side of the first Crusades.